Cyber Security (Cyber Secure Everywhere) PhD

University of Bristol

Digital infrastructures are at the heart of our societal fabric. They range from traditional critical infrastructures, for example, water, power to emerging ones such as smart cities, intelligent transportation, Fintech and future banking, through to large social and business interaction platforms. Cyber security is a hard challenge in any system. The ever-increasing interconnectivity and dependencies across the boundaries of such infrastructures make it an even harder one. Legacy (often insecure) and contemporary (secure or with hitherto undiscovered vulnerabilities) hardware, software and services are connected together, often on-the-fly, due to millions of user interactions. This is compounded by complex and changing supply chains with varying levels of security assurances and trust. This next frontier in cyber security requires highly skilled professionals to proactively anticipate and address the implications for security and resilience through innovative fundamental research that will underpin future infrastructure architectures and products and services therein. However, there continues to be a major shortage of skilled cyber security professionals. PhD-level graduates are key to addressing this major shortage as they are the future research leaders with the capability to anticipate the challenges and develop innovative solutions. Our Cyber Secure Everywhere Centre for Doctoral Training offers research students an immersive challenge-led training approach by providing a unique co-creation experience with user partners to research overarching but linked thematic challenges. During our four-year programme, students learn from world-leading researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Bath, from each other as an interdisciplinary cohort, and also from industry experts. Our approach is fundamentally different from regular research training. Students learn from leading experts within multiple disciplines, including psychology, management, engineering, sociology and computer science. This approach provides a holistic understanding that is more attuned to the realities of tackling cyber security problems across complex IT, OT and IIoT systems.

Faculty of Science and Engineering